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Fighting the Dark Side of Renovation with Thoreau
Oh! The Irony! So the cups above are two of my favorite coffee cups and I drink out of one of them most mornings. The irony of the messages on these cups isn’t lost on me. In fact, the irony is the primary reason why I love them. What on earth does a Thoreau quotation about confidence, my perception of perseverance have to do with home renovation? Please continue, dear reader. I am a Teacher I taught was a teacher for several years. Most of my teaching career, I was a gifted and talented program’s teacher and I adored my job. We did a unit entitled “Simplicity” and in it,…
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Genealogy Research Results in Family Stories
The Thrill of the Search Names and dates. Very important things to a genealogist. But names and dates (even locations) seem to paint a very thin picture of an individual who actually lived. Going beyond the numbers is where the stories begin and that is the best part of genealogy research. My ultimate goal in genealogy research is to find or construct family stories. I can do this because every bit of genealogy information I find helps me to flesh out my ancestors. Genealogy is my way of preserving family history and honoring my ancestors. Genealogy research is a way to make the past disappear. Each scrap of paper, every…
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Weekend Wine Room Project
The Weekend Wine Room Project I am of Scottish descent. That means I have an excuse for being thrifty. In truth, I like to see what I can do with as little as possible. It is more an exercise in creativity than anything, but it has the advantage of making it possible to do more because I (usually) spend less. On this project, I wanted a wine room in one weekend for under $300. We got a wine room, but we also gained a lot of DIY knowledge. (FYI…self-leveling cement pours quickly and it spreads like wild fire. Be ready or you will be playing a wicked game of Twister.) …
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Success! Installing Hard Wood Flooring in the Old House
Decisions About Flooring I wanted to keep the original floors, but the floors made the decision for me. There just wasn’t enough of it. We did save it and have been able to re-purpose it in other areas…more on that later. However, once we realized the original floor was a no-go, we had to start looking at what we were going to put down in its place. In the end, installing the new hard wood flooring was a success. It went smoothly with Jerry cutting the boards and me installing them. But the decision on what type of flooring took a bit of work… The hand-scrapped reclaimed wood was beautiful,…
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Installing Sub-flooring, Insulation and Hardwood Flooring in South Pen
The South Pen The south pen was always my “safe spot” to start. It wasn’t as dark as the north side of the house and it seemed to be in better shape than the north pen as well. It isn’t surprising, then that this room is the one that is most finished. I don’t know that our 1846 Texas Homestead will ever be completely finish, but at this point, we are living here and that is all that matters…for now anyway. Renovations are exhausting. But at one point, we were focused on things like sub-flooring, insulation, and selecting a hardwood flooring. But before we got there, we had a lot…
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Moroccan Chicken with Preserved Lemons
Preserved Lemons I had never heard of preserved lemons until I wanted to make a Moroccan chicken recipe. Of course, the recipe called for preserved lemons and the cookbook helpfully included the recipe for the lemons. Some would say that I am a planner. I make lists and I use sticky notes, but doesn’t everyone? I do not however, plan my meals three weeks out. And that is how long it takes to preserve lemons. The recipe called to me though and I had continued to put off making it because of those danged lemons. There was only one thing to do. Make the lemons and have them ready and…
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An Experiment Born of Inconvenience
Y’all know that I am a bit strange and I love to try things that most others wouldn’t do on a bet. I have a fascination with the past and how people lived (and ate) back in the day. When a storm knocked out our power for almost two weeks, I was thrown into the past living without water, septic, or power. It sort of became an experiment in survival (we stayed in at home the entire time) while we attempted to live comfortably without the conveniences of modern life. With Hurricane Dorian looming off the coast, several of my friends on Facebook are talking about their hurricane preparation and…
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A Beach in the Back Yard? Why Not?
Today is my husband’s parents 60th wedding anniversary. In honor of this pretty amazing accomplishment, I wanted to take a second and look back at the celebration we had a decade ago. We decided that life was a beach (literally) and we turned our subdivision, useless back yard into a white sand beach and threw a luau for their 50th anniversary. The Problem with the Yard The problem with our back yard was that it was nonexistent. It was tiny and damp. Mosquitoes ruled the land. There was a small creek that went through the thick, dense trees. Weeds were knee high, but grass wouldn’t have grown there due to…